Post-Benghazi Travel

By Robert Milburn

If you have not heard the term “express kidnapping” consider this story: A 42-year-old male C-Suite American executive was away on business in Asia. Upon jumping into a chauffeured sedan, provided by the hotel, the senior executive specializing in alternative investments was detoured to a remote area. He was forced to withdraw $15,000 from a series of ATMs, at gunpoint, before he was finally released. The executive walked 15-plus miles back to his hotel. The whole ordeal took about 6 hours, not counting the walk.

Paul Viollis

This story about a rising crime trend was told to Penta by security expert Paul Viollis. His message, about this hidden security risk, was clear – never let even a five-star hotel send a driver to pick you up at the airport. All it takes is one corrupt hotel employee to compromise your safety.

Viollis has 34 years of experience in the security business, including stints at Kroll and work as a security specialist for the United States Space Command. He rarely minces words. His firm Risk Control Strategies has over 75 employees and provides security solutions for high net worth families, everything from vetting household workers to negotiating hostage situations. Penta previously talked with Viollis when reporting on the rising number of cyber threats hitting family offices.

We paid him a visit to get up to speed on the latest security threats. He said his firm, RCS, is grappling with the increasingly complicated issue of how to protect affluent clients while traveling abroad.

“Travel risk is going to escalate dramatically, because we sent the worst message to the world in the horrific, hideous way we handled Benghazi,” he explained. Viollis told us, for example, he was appalled that the FBI spent more than two weeks investigating the Benghazi tragedy from afar, after four Americans, including a U.S. ambassador, were killed.

“The longer we as a country go without addressing the vulnerabilities of our embassies internationally,” Viollis summarized, “the weaker America’s brand becomes and the more vulnerable Americans become as they travel abroad.” It’s simple. “If someone can murder an ambassador and we don’t do anything about it, what would we expect the government to do for a regular citizen?”

Viollis’ dark warning was reinforced three and a half weeks after we met. On August 4th the State Department shuttered twenty U.S. embassies throughout the Middle East and Africa after it received an unspecified but noisy terrorist threat.

It’s not political, he said; these concerns have been apparent since 1993 after the first bombing of the World Trade Centers. What’s more important- very little about the discussion has changed.

So Viollis & Co have been inundated with calls for vetting international travel itineraries for wealthy folks and their children, many of whom plan to travel or study abroad. “People are more aware,” he said. “They’re picking up the phone and are more interested in pre-emptive preparation than they ever were.” Viollis is thinking about hiring half-a-dozen new analysts just to keep up with the demand.

At Viollis’ New York City headquarters, the threats of international travel are all around the office. Mounted on the walls, amidst the office’s Spartan décor, are six flashing big screens, each displaying a world map that monitors, among other things, medical outbreaks, human-trafficking, and terrorist threats. The screens are powered by GlobalIncidentMap.com. The blinking icons, like exclamation points and a man holding a gun, light up like an arcade game.

As we scanned the flat screens, in real-time I saw police foil a human-trafficking ring in Oman and a sudden shooting erupt in Peru. Viollis and his team monitor this information in conjunction with RCS’s network of global partners to assess potential threats in individual spots around the world, helping them to effectively advise a client intending, say, to make a philanthropic-driven trip to Ethiopia the next week.

After Viollis deems the location is safe, he vets the entire itinerary and secures a driver. This is important, Viollis says, as hammered home by the express kidnapping story above. Express kidnapping is usually an inside job in which a driver is booked through a corrupt hotel employee. The wealthy individual is held at gunpoint until he or she forks over significant amounts of cash, anywhere from $10,000 to $35,000,

“It’s a much neater business model [for criminals],” Viollis told us. “It’s quick. It’s stick and move – and after about six to eight hours, you normally come out unscathed. But it’ll scare the [heck] out of you.” (Viollis of course used a considerably more colorful term to describe how such a frightening incident will wreak havoc on your internal plumbing.)

RCS also develops an extrapolation plan to get clients out of a country in turmoil. This is the new wrinkle introduced by Benghazi and the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, both of which seemed to target either Brits or Americans. RCS used to say ‘Here is the closest American embassy and the various routes to get there. John Smith is your point of contact at the embassy if anything happens, and he’s aware you’re in the country.’

RCS now bypasses the U.S. embassies because they have their own security risks. The security firm and its international operatives have instead built their own hot-spot safe havens to house, feed and provide medical attention for clients, until they can securely leave the country.

Some of these precautions may seem obvious, but the time, care and expertise needed to establish truly safe travel to and from the most volatile regions can be incredibly complicated. First and foremost, however, it’s important to be conscious of the risk. “Don’t embrace the fear, but acknowledge our responsibility in understanding it as reality,” Viollis said. “Then, simply, take the appropriate steps.”

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